Research Padlet by Porter Stephenson - BHS - 09

The Poisoned City

922100 — 2024-04-23 18:17:42 UTC

"But the authorities 'said everything was all right and you could drink it, so people did,".

Shows how the government wasn't focused on the safety of the people, telling them it was okay to drink water contaminated with lead.

From The Poisoned City

Leaded Gas May Have Lowered IQ's, Studies Finds

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:19:18 UTC

Adrianna Rodriguez from USA Today writes that "Health experts say the effects of leaded gasoline in cars, although banned since 1996, still linger today after a new study found Americans exposed to the highly toxic metal may have a lower IQ."

Leaded Gas May Have Lowered IQ's, Studies Finds

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:22:41 UTC

She cites researchers at Duke University and Florida State University, who analyzed data on U.S. childhood blood-lead levels, and the life-long effects of exposure to the leaded gasoline that was used in cars, who estimate that "this level of lead exposure may have lowered a person's IQ by an average of three points."

Leaded Gas May Have Lowered IQ's, Studies Find

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:24:50 UTC

"Lead is a neurotoxic metal that can erode brain cells after entering the body, health experts say. There's no safe level of exposure to lead, and children are especially vulnerable to impaired brain development."

Leaded Gas May Have Lowered IQ's, Studies Find

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:26:18 UTC

"They found more than 170 million Americans - more than half of the U.S. population - had "clinically concerning" levels of lead in their blood when they were children, according to the study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

9216262 — 2024-04-23 18:26:57 UTC

The author uses evidence from multiple sources to support the claim that the depletion of our stratospheric ozone layer is harmful to the human health. They cite the World Health Organization (WHO), stating "Stratospheric ozone absorbs part of the sun's incoming UV radiation...Sustained exposure to UVB radiation harms humans and many other organisms.). It can damage the genetic (DNA) material of living cells and can induce skin cancer..."

The author also talks about how the depletion of the ozone layer is associated with climate change because after some greenhouse substances were banned, "Several of the greenhouse gases (especially chlorofluorocarbons) also damage stratospheric ozone."

This all shows that human actions can have a collateral damage on different parts of the environment, which causes harm to us.

Part 2. Methods and tools: 10. Stratospheric ozone depletion

Authors: Sari Kovats, Kristie L. Ebi and Bettina Menne

From: WHO Regional Publications, European Series

Kovats, Sari, et al. "Part 2. Methods and tools: 10. Stratospheric ozone depletion." WHO Regional Publications, European Series, World Health Organization, 2003. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A159179691/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=b31e370f. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-23 18:27:38 UTC

"Instead, a disastrous choice to break a crucial environmental law, followed by eighteen months of delay and cover-up by the city, state, and federal governments, put a staggering number of citizens in peril."

Leaded Gas May Have Lowered IQ's, Studies Find

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:29:26 UTC

"'The tricky thing about health is that it often takes very long for health to show exposure,' said Hannes Schwandt, an expert in human development and social policy, and a professor at Northwestern University, who was not involved with the study."

Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrank IQ Scores of Half of Americans

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:34:49 UTC

"A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today, about half the population of the United States."

Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrank IQ Scores of Half of Americans

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:36:12 UTC

"Aaron Reuben, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at Duke University, and colleagues at Florida State University, suggest that Americans born before 1996 may now be at greater risk for lead-related health problems, such as faster aging of the brain."

Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrank IQ Scores of Half of Americans

957864 — 2024-04-23 18:37:12 UTC

"One major way lead used to invade bloodstreams was through automotive exhaust."

9216262 — 2024-04-24 18:04:29 UTC

This graph shows the estimated amount of IQ points that would have been lost from 1970-1990 if lead was kept in gasoline. This shows the dangers that humans can have on the environment and on eachother.

What is the Impact of Green Practices?

957864 — 2024-04-24 18:05:13 UTC

"But does it really make a difference to practice the so called three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle? To take public transportation, drive an electric car, or bike to work? To shop for green products, choose ntural cleaning supplies, or use reusable grocery bags? To build environmentally friendly buildings, develop alternative clean energy sources, or buy carbon offsets to make up for the pollution that our actions contribute to the environment. It's maddeningly hard to say."

9216262 — 2024-04-25 17:55:50 UTC

"The effects of ozone depletion on health have been assessed quantitatively for skin cancer and cataract where adequate data exist."

"Information on the general relationship between solar exposure and skin cancer is available from a large body of epidemiological research. It provides estimates of risk increments associated with different amounts of time, by stage of life, spent exposed to solar radiation."

Part 2. Methods and tools: 10. Stratospheric ozone depletion

Authors: Sari Kovats, Kristie L. Ebi and Bettina Menne

Publisher: World Health Organization

957864 — 2024-04-25 17:56:04 UTC

"A study in 1965 found that US levels of airborne lead had increased 1,000-fold since 1923. The stuff was almost ubiquitous worldwide before being phased out from the 70s. It ended up causing about 1.2 million premature deaths a year, lowered the IQ of countless children and probably drove many to violence."

"The bold inventor who showed the thin line between progress and destruction; PEOPLE The legacies of engineer Thomas Midgley Jr are lead petrol and CFCs. By Simon Kuper." i, 15 Dec. 2021, p. 19. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A686872137/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=ad05fe30. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.

957864 — 2024-04-25 17:58:40 UTC

"Historian JR McNeill wrote that Midgley 'had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history.'"

9216262 — 2024-04-25 18:03:41 UTC

World We Avoided by Protecting the Ozone Layer

9216262 — 2024-04-25 18:04:26 UTC

957864 — 2024-04-25 18:15:03 UTC

"Various factors had to come together to make Midgley so destructive. Above all, he was a powerful man living in a booming region of the superpower of his day."

This testifies for the fact that powerful people have great influence and will do anything to maintain, and profit, from that influence. It reminds us that big influential companies and people must be checked, and they must acknowledge their impacts on the world around them.

957864 — 2024-04-25 18:24:53 UTC

"Ozone strongly absorbs ultraviolet radiation at wavelengths of 220 through 290 nm with peak absorption at 260.4 nm. Ozone will also absorb infrared radiation at wavelengths in the range 9-10 μg."

The ozone absorbing ultraviolet radiation is important because ultraviolet radiation wavelengths obstruct the carbon cycle by inhibiting photosynthesis. This is obviously bad because when photosynthesis is inhibited, there is less oxygen for our planet.

"Ozone." Environmental Encyclopedia, edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield, Gale, 2011. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2644151013/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=061096ca. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

9216262 — 2024-04-25 18:29:17 UTC

"Only around 9 percent of all plastics produced in the world are recycled. As a result, even in the most optimistic estimates, eight million tons of plastics end up in the oceans each year, and, if the pace continues, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. The numbers go on and on, but the results are simple to understand: animals are dying from starvation and entanglement, and humans are eating, drinking, and even breathing plastics, with consequences to health that are mostly still unknown."

The Effects of Plastics on Climate Change: An Analysis of the Potential Responses within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Author: Luisa Cortat Simonetti Goncalves

Goncalves, Luisa Cortat Simonetti. "The Effects of Plastics on Climate Change: An Analysis of the Potential Responses within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)." Yearbook of International Environmental Law, vol. 30, Oxford UP, 2019, p. 165+. Gale In Context: Global Issues, dx.doi.org/10.1093/yiel/yvab001. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

9216262 — 2024-04-25 18:32:38 UTC

"In total, 50 percent of the plastic produced is used only once and for mere minutes; 26 percent of the volume of plastic is used for packaging purposes, which usually would have more sustainable alternatives. Only around 9 percent of all plastics produced in the world are recycled. As a result, even in the most optimistic estimates, eight million tons of plastics end up in the oceans each year, and, if the pace continues, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050."

The Effects of Plastics on Climate Change: An Analysis of the Potential Responses within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Author: Luisa Cortat Simonetti Goncalves

9216262 — 2024-04-25 18:35:33 UTC

"The numbers go on and on, but the results are simple to understand: animals are dying from starvation and entanglement, and humans are eating, drinking, and even breathing plastics, with consequences to health that are mostly still unknown."

The Effects of Plastics on Climate Change: An Analysis of the Potential Responses within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Author: Luisa Cortat Simonetti Goncalves

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 17:57:19 UTC

"Outside the new conference, as Hanna-Attisha and Wurfel conferred, and as the mayor spoke, having only recently regained the authority of his elected office, about thirty residents were gathered. Holding up hand-lettered signs, they called for clean, safe, and affordable water. Some wore homemade biohazard suits. One sign read 'Not Your Lab Rats!' Together they chanted, 'Flint lives matter!' They hadn't been allowed in the room".

Show thats governments can put profits first, and the health of the people are often disregarded.

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 18:01:59 UTC

"In March, the City Council voted to 'do all things necessary to reconnect to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.' But emergency manager Jerry Ambrose was the only one with the power to act, and he disagreed, calling the vote 'incomprehensible': a switch back would cost more than $12 million a year."

Again shows that money has more worth than peoples' lives and health.

9216262 — 2024-04-26 18:03:52 UTC

"Our atmosphere provides animals with the oxygen they breathe and plants with the carbon dioxide they need to grow...In short, our atmosphere is what makes life on Earth possible."

Under a Black Cloud: Our Atmosphere Under Attack

Author: Frank Spalding

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 18:06:10 UTC

"Basically, the bottom line is, stop trying to come up with ways to try and hide the lead. You should be looking for the high lead. That is your job as the DEQ. When you find it , you tell us.... Do your job, the way the EPA intended for you to do it."

Shows that people had to fight for action to be taken against the people who were denying or hiding the poisoned water.

9216262 — 2024-04-26 18:08:18 UTC

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 18:10:42 UTC

"No doubt that it was a sign of system weakness, Darnell Earley acknowledged, but it was not 'an actual threat to citizen safety.' A Journal reporter ran that claim by both Mike Prysby and a water expert at Michigan State University. Both agreed that the advisories were a red flag".

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 18:15:58 UTC

"To add insult to injury, this weird water was expensive. Residents were charged about $140 per month on their water and sewer bills-$35 more than the town with the second-highest rates in Genesee County and $90 more than the lowest. For this water, not including sewer, their bills were about twice as large the median cost in the water-rich Midwest."

9216262 — 2024-04-26 18:17:17 UTC

"While many countries would like to use greener power sources, the decision to do so is ultimately bound up in a complicated series of political and economic factors. For instance, the United States has large coal reserves. Because coal is an abundant natural resource in the United States, it will probably remain the country’s dominant power source for some time to come. However, increasing efficiency of our existing powerplants is a simple way to reduce carbon emissions."

Under a Black Cloud: Our Atmosphere Under Attack

Author: Frank Spalding

957864 — 2024-04-26 18:17:26 UTC

These excerpts from the text describe the ozone layer cycle and show why CFCs, industrial by products, are harmful to it.

"This ozone layer is maintained as follows: the action of ultraviolet light breaks O₂ molecules into atoms of elemental oxygen (O). The elemental oxygen then attaches to other O₂ molecules to form O₃. When it absorbs ultraviolet radiation that would otherwise reach the earth, ozone is, in turn, broken down into O₂ + O. The elemental oxygen generated then finds another O₂ molecule to become O₃ once again."

"CFCs slowly rise into the upper atmosphere, where they are broken apart by solar radiation. This releases chlorine atoms that act as catalysts, breaking up molecules of ozone by stripping away one of their oxygen atoms. The chlorine atoms, unaltered by the reaction, are each capable of destroying ozone molecules repeatedly. Without a sufficient quantity of ozone to block its way, ultraviolet radiation from the sun passes through the upper atmosphere and reaches the surface of the earth."

"Ozone layer depletion." Environmental Encyclopedia, edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield, Gale, 2011. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV2644151014/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=7e974549. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.

957864 — 2024-04-26 18:19:28 UTC

"In 1974 American chemist F. Sherwood Rowland (1927–) and Mexican chemist Mario J. Molina (1943–) realized that chlorine (Cl) from chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) molecules was capable of breaking down ozone in the stratosphere. In time, evidence began to accumulate that the ozone layer was indeed being broken apart by these industrial chemicals"

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-04-26 18:20:24 UTC

"The city's lack of cooperation continues to prevent my office from performing our responsibilities. The spreading disease closely corresponds with the time frame of the switch to the Flint River water... This is rather glaring information and it needs to be looked into now."

957864 — 2024-04-26 18:26:50 UTC

this shows how natural ozone is produced in the stratosphere. ultraviolet radiation breaks down O3 molecules into a O2 and O molecule, then the O molecule quickly rejoins with another O2 molecule, which makes ozone.

9216262 — 2024-04-30 18:16:46 UTC

"In 2007, the world’s foremost authority on global warming and climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued a report saying that the temperature of Earth’s air and oceans is rising. According to the IPCC, there is over a 90 percent chance that this temperature increase cannot be solely attributed to natural processes—human beings are responsible as well."

Under a Black Cloud: Our Atmosphere Under Attack

Author: Frank Spalding

922100 — 2024-05-02 17:53:28 UTC

Shows how water quality affects how long a person lives.

922100 — 2024-05-02 17:57:34 UTC

Says that air pollution takes away two years of a person's life expectancy over a person's lifetime.

922100 — 2024-05-02 18:02:29 UTC

Diagram shows respiratory diseases across the united states.

9216262 — 2024-05-02 18:10:37 UTC

When the air forecast indicates a code red air quality day, what does it mean for your health?

"The answer depends on many factors. There's no simple answer for everyone," says Dr. Darryl Zeldin, acting clinical director of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

"The combination of high temperatures, few winds and breezes, pollution and airborne particles can brew up an unhealthful mixture in the air, just waiting to enter your lungs. These substances can make it hard to breathe and can sap your energy. If the air quality is especially poor, it may take a few days for your body to recover. If you're regularly exposed to high levels of unhealthy air, health consequences can linger for months or years," he says.

"How the air can impact your health." Spectator [Hamilton, Ontario], 10 Apr. 2024, p. A11. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A789584642/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=36210890. Accessed 2 May 2024.

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-05-02 18:11:42 UTC

"here was an invisible, impersonal mass killer on the loose. The knowledge rekindled, despite all the advances of modern medicine, humanity's ancient memories of epidemics beyond understanding or control"

The quote uses a metaphor to spark emotion and compares the tainted water to a mass killer.

The poisoned city

922100 — 2024-05-02 18:15:20 UTC

"water that was not suitable for anything but flushing toilets, and they had been told to like it."

Shows how the authority was completely fine with leaving the citizens in a state of emergency with no water.

9216262 — 2024-05-02 18:22:52 UTC

However, at this same time, this more-than-doubling of the global population took a large toll on the environment as pollution of the air and water increased, depletion of land resources escalated, and degradation to the overall global environment occurred at a rapid pace. This population growth throughout the world has most likely contributed to a large degree to this environmental degradation. In fact, most environmentalists agree that many of Earth's environmental problems such as climate change, species loss, and resource degradation are exacerbated by population growth.

Atkins, William Arthur. "Population Effects on the Environment." Human Geography: People and the Environment, edited by K. Lee Lerner, et al., vol. 1, Gale, 2013, pp. 88-92. Gale In Context: Global Issues, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2062300039/GIC?u=j220918001&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=de1bda9c. Accessed 2 May 2024.

9216262 — 2024-05-03 18:08:41 UTC

As the climate around the world continues to change and get warmer, more severe weather is seen to be occurring. Air pollution can cause serious health problems, especially to those with asthma. Water pollution can affect how safe it is to eat or drink certain things. This shows why we need to take care of our environment or else it will turn against us.

Lorax

922100 — 2024-05-03 18:08:50 UTC

The onceler, in pursuit of wealth, chops down the last tree. He destroyed an entire ecosystem and hurt so many creatures for profit.

957864 — 2024-05-03 18:19:19 UTC